But while I’m happy enough to wear them on the Upper Sacramento, I’d only wear them on the McCloud or Pit Rivers on a double-dog dare (and only if my health insurance was paid up).

Which is why the Patagonia Rock Grip wading boots caught my eye*.

They feature an aggressive rubber sole which (similar design to the Simms, Orvis & Korker boots I’ve tested), though they use a rubber compound which Patagonia suggests tested out better than the Riverwalker’s soft compound and the considerably harder Vibram soles found on other boots.

The new, far-more-aggressive sole design of the new Patagonia "Rock Grip" wading boot

I’d previously said that rubber-soled wading boots were OK if you waded “easy” rivers (they did well on the Rogue and Bitterroot, Ok on the Upper Sac), but offer the prospect of a compound fracture on tough rivers like the McCloud and Pit.

To make a rubber-soled boot an “all-round” wading boot, you probably need metal studs. Which eliminates some of the convenience factor of rubber.

Fortunately, the Rock Grip boots include a bag of studs, so adding steel to the mix doesn’t drive up the cost of the boot (Simms is charging upwards of an extra $40 for studs, which are admittedly more complex than Patagonia’s screws).

The boots are a bit heavier and stiffer than the Riverwalkers, which will pretty clearly remain my backcountry/small stream boot of choice.

I’ll give these a test next time out, and we’ll see how they run.

I suspect my original conclusions will remain intact, but because a broken leg is a damned small price to pay for the continued adoration of the fans who have made me Fly Fishing’s Most-Beloved Blogger**, I’m taking the risk.

Because I hear the anguished cries of my angling brethren – some of whom apparently can’t wade across a wet gutter without falling down – I offer up what has to be the ultimate wading boots: The Kayland Ice Dragon Ice Climbing Boots.

Slip while wading in these bad boys, and there's simply no hope for you...

If you can’t make it across the McCloud wearing Ice Dragon ice climbing boots, you don’t need better wading boots, you need that personal anti-gravity device Popular Mechanics promised us so many years ago.

Fly fishing a small stream rarely generates the reams of “technical” literature devoured by fly fishing’s technocrats. It’s a simple act, and suggesting the #16 Red Humpy I fished during yesterday’s trip was somehow the “perfect” fly would be to (convincingly) play the role of a fool.

Instead, I’ll say it worked well enough, as did the 8.5′ 4wt Diamondglass rod I fished on this tiny stream, though at times I think an 8′ rod might have been handier – and perhaps spooked fewer trout in the casting.

Sticky rubber soles: I may never wear anything else on a small stream

I also say this with some certainty: The Patagonia Riverwalker “sticky” rubber boots absolutely excel on small streams. It’s true the new sticky rubber soles are not quite ready to take on the toughest wading tasks (slimy rocks), but then, I’ve always thought felt soles weren’t quite ready for my small stream adventures.

Comfortable, light and absolutely rubber-cement sticky on dry rocks, the Riverwalkers never slipped once, even on those wet, flat, angled rocks that normally threaten to skate your studded soles into a nasty fall.

Some have questioned the need to replace felt soles based on the spread of invasives, and I’d agree the invasives angle smells like a marketing construct – there are too many other hiding places on a boot and waders.

That said, these particular sticky rubber boots are simply way better than your father’s lugged rubber boots – good enough that I’m keeping my sticky rubber soles in a pristine state, and looking for a studded rubber replacement to felt (note: our studded rubber sole testing project has been delayed due to life, but is due to start again soon).

That’s not to stem the tide of invasives; it’s because my own testing suggests studded rubber boots work better in a variety of conditions, and yes, they last much, much longer. With baby probably already needing a new pair of shoes (and maybe braces, and college), longer and cheaper is better.

The question now is will the Patagonia Sticky rubber/Simms & Vibram harder rubber/Korkers “Kling-on” rubber soles – in conjunction with studs – perform better than straight (or even studded) felt?

Because I’m sick and tiredconcerned about the whiningsafety of the Underground’s Crack Team of Wading Boot Testers (how many emails complaining about compound fractures should one guy have to endure), the small stack of rubber-soled wading boots are facing some alterations.

Simms was nice enough to send along a set of their carbide-tipped screw-in studs, and the Korkers can be equipped with a set of studded rubber “Kling-on” soles – and also felt & studded felt.

So here’s the gig.

One of the Simms soles will be on the receiving end of studs, and in a daring, in-stream, boot-to-boot comparison, we’ll see how that boot compares to the other unstudded sole.

The chameleon-esque Korkers will be outfitted with a mixture of studded rubber, felt, and studded felt, and we’ll see what happens in our direct, boot-to-boot comparison.

The Patagonia Riverwalkers may remain unaltered for a while – the “control” group for sticky rubber.

Slowing the testing a little bit is a busy work schedule, a couple weeks of 90+ degree temperatures (that’s a long string of hot for up here), and an ongoing desire to fly fish the little stuff (backcountry streams and lakes).

Accordingly, I plan to enlist the help of some of the local attention-cravinghelpful guides.

There’s more to come on the equipment front, though things move slowly here because we foolishly actually test gear before we write a review – a process which results in more accuracy, but less throughput.

It’s just how we roll.

Coming Up

Proving that nothing interests people more than the fear that someone’s getting something they’re not, my review of the Redington fly rod & reel combo triggered inquiries from a pair of fly rod companies. And yes, I may enlist the help of the Undergrounders in deciding what rods to test.

Then there’s the story which is going to blow the lid off the fly fishing… err… fly fishing hat industry.

In other words, through years of testing, we’ve identified the World’s Best All-Around Warmweather Fly Fishing Hat, and because we’re externally validated nice enough to share, we’re going to let the world know it.

Some days, it’s just plain great to be us.

See you [teetering, windmilling, and falling] on the river, Tom Chandler.

Of course, my original goal wasn’t to test the boots themselves as much as the sticky rubber soles – would the latest generation be ready for anything fly fishermen have to throw at them?

The answer – at least as it pertains to the bare rubber soles – is “not quite.”

Close, but not quite.

Local guides Wayne Eng and Steve Bertrand liked the new rubber soles in the calmer parts of the Upper Sacramento River, but after a little testing, neither wanted anything to do with the sticky rubber in the McCloud.

I recently fished the McCloud in Patagonia’s Riverwalkers, and those sticky rubber soles did well enough that I survived the experience, but I’d probably screw in some studs if I fished the McCloud all the time.

The thinking on the Simms and Riverwalkers were confirmed by comments from readers, some of whom fish a lot.

Simply put, if you’re fishing tough waters (the McCloud is a notoriously difficult river to wade, as is the Pit), adding a few screw-in studs to the new sticky rubber soles is probably necessary, and frankly, that’s hardly the end of the world.

After all, what you’d end up with is a boot that grips about as well as felt in the tough stuff, grips better in tricky out-of-the-water situations, yet lasts a zillion times longer. (They also don’t transmit invasives quite so readily, though I believe the role of felt soles in that transmission is a little overplayed.)

I’m going to write a big wrap-up article after Montana, but here are my impressions so far.

Simms Headwater Wading Boot

The headwater is a nice, protective boot (hard rubber toe cap is handy), and obviously, lots of folks love the Simms fit.

Still, I’ll be honest; I’m a tiny bit less sanguine about the Simm’s hard Vibram sole than I am the softer sole of the Patagonia boots, though I reserve the right to change that thinking if the Riverwalkers wear too quickly.

On the bigger, angular rocks of the McCloud, the Simms rubber soles were less thrilling, though there’s ample testimony from readers that a few metal studs (screw ’em in yourself) would largely fix that issue.

The Riverwalkers are the best choice for the blueliner; they’re extremely comfortable on the trail and the very soft, very sticky rubber works beautifully in the small stream environment.

On a small, bouldered local freestone stream, I could practically walk up the side of dry boulders – a handy feature as fly fishing small freestoners is half rock climbing anyway.

The Riverwalkers are flexible, light, go on easy, and just generally make my feet happy. They hike beautifully.

My brain was less thrilled when I wore them on a recent outing to the McCloud, where I was trying awfully hard to catch a fish for a TV crew (and failing).

The sticky rubber sole worked fairly well, but the failure mode was bad – they gripped the McCloud’s very hard-to-wade rocks until they didn’t – and the sudden loss of grip was… ahh… unpleasant.

I’ll be blunt: the Riverwalker’s bare rubber sole worked surprisingly well on the McCloud, but long-dormant survivial instincts would demand I screw in a few studs if I fished the McCloud all the time.

So far, they’ve been fine for me on the Upper Sacramento.

The New Kid: Korkers

I only fished in the Korker’s boots on a small stream, so I can’t really evaluate the effectiveness of their new “Kling-on” rubber sole (which also comes in a studded version).

I owned an early pair of Korkers that offered zero ankle support, but the new boots are supportive and seemingly well-built – and offer you the ability to quickly change soles to fit your fishing environment.

Changing the soles is not a five-second job, so hiking in/changing soles/fishing/changing soles/hiking out is mostly fantasy. In my mind, the real benefit of these boots is their ability to become the shoe you need them to become that day.

This makes them (on the surface anyway) ideal for the traveling angler, who might want a studded felt/rubber sole for most of his trip, but needs a plain felt/rubber sole to wear in a drift boat.

At the end of a long winter (even an easy long winter), 80 degree feels about ten degrees hotter than the world’s ever been, and you marvel at the feel of sunlight glowing directly on skin sans a fleece buffer between the two.

Though I had to cut and run from work on Monday to fish the Rogue with Dave Roberts, I rationalized the escape thusly: I wanted to.

Dave Roberts bravely testing wading boots for the Undergrounders.

It’s not the kind of thing that makes clients happy, but as everyone knows (at least after reading this), an under-recreated writer is a boring writer, and at some point, you’ve gotta fly fish.

For those looking for big fish stories, I’ll be blunt: stop reading here.

Though Dave Roberts knows the Upper Rogue like the rest of us know our living rooms, this was not a hard-charging, balls-to-the-wall, extreme fishing adventure.

Instead, we more or less doodled along the river, fishing for steelhead (one of which bit a streamer, but came unbuttoned after a couple seconds). We also landed a pair of 11″ trout who apparently didn’t know w you’re not allowed to fish for trout on the Rogue right now, which suggests the trout have yet to invent their own version of Twitter.

Looks pretty and scenic from the shore - until you realize your ride to the ramp is leaving.

The Testing Continues

We did manage to further the world’s scientifically derived knowledge about a pair of the next-generation rubber-soled wading boots, testing the newly arrived Simms wading boots against the previously reviewed Patagonias.

The Rogue is positively filled with green snot-covered rocks the size of your average loaf of bread, making it an ideal testing ground for rubber soled-boots.

Slimy enough? Our testing grounds...

On two separate runs, Roberts and I got out and tromped around, then swapped boots and did it again. (The rocks were slimy enough that a fair amount of detached green stuff floated downstream when we waded.)

While more testing is needed (preferably on some remote BC steelhead river, though budgetary concerns suggest the Upper Sac will have to do), we both came to the rather surprising conclusion that these things worked pretty damned well in a situation where we didn’t expect they would.

The work is hard, but no sacrifice is too great for my readers.

It’s possible the Simms’ more aggressive tread pattern gave it a slight edge in the “greasy bowling ball” portion of the test, though we’ve yet to test the Simms boots in varied Upper Sacramento or small stream conditions (coming soon).

At this point, I’d have no qualms about using either boot on the Rogue. And Roberts – who admitted to reading my reports on Patagonia’s boots with some skepticism – was ready to buy either pair, though the Simms fit him best (the Patagonias felt more comfy to me, telling us what we already know – different shoes fit different feet… differently).

More Testing

Plenty more to come from the Underground; I also concluded testing on the Redington 6wt rod & reel combo, and I’ve added it to the “write this” pile (which has grown pretty sizable).

Several DVDs are waiting for reviews, and yes, there’s always the chance for another fishing report.

I really pegged the Underground’s “Service to Mankind” Meter on this one.

Simms, Patagonia wading boots for testing

Because today – instead of staying home and working (always my first choice) – I’m looming up the truck and going fly fishing with Dave Roberts on the Rogue. And yes, I’m selflessly doing it all for you.

And yes, I know what you’re thinking: “That Chandler guy really gives his all to his readers – sacrificing a day sitting on his ass behind a desk so that his readers can know the inner peace born of comprehensive fly fishing gear reviews.”

You’d be right.

I’m just like Mother Theresa, only in waders.

I know many of you are doubtless phoning the Nobel Prize committee right now. And perhaps a few calls are going out to Vatican. (Could I become fly fishing’s living patron saint?)

To you, I say “Send cash instead.”

If enough of you recognize my selfless sacrifice with cold, hard cash, then I can afford to take more days off work to go fly fishing – dramatically improving the quality of your lives in the process.

At the Underground, that’s what we call a win-win situation (well, more a WIN [me] – win [you]).

I was sprawled on the picnic table in front of Wayne Eng’s house, sun on my back – thinking about napping in the 58-degree weather – when Wayne apologized for taking so long to get ready for our fly fishing trip on the Upper Sacramento.

“Save yourself,” I mumbled. “Go on without me.”

“Get your ass up” he said. “We’re going fishing.”

And thus, a fly fishing trip was born.

In the afternoon light, Wayne's last trout - colorful to begin with - lit up (click the image for a 1440 x 900 pixel version)

With much of the country blanketed in sub-freezing temperatures, those living near Trout Underground/Man Cave World Headquarters have been enjoying unreasonably warm temperatures – some days approaching 60 degrees. (Coincidence? I think not.)

While we could damn sure use some snow, I’ll probably find myself laboring behind Satan’s Snowblower soon enough, so in the spirit of opportunists everywhere, you go fly fishing while the fly fishing’s good.

Wayne and I ended up on a good dry fly stretch of the river, where Wayne personally witnessed a decent BWO hatch – and yes, rising trout – only a couple days before.

Wayne Eng fly fishing away. It’s been warm, but some snow remains.

Observations like that excite me; some people crave powerful illegal drugs, others accumulate power and expensive cars, but I’ve got a thing for rising trout. Sadly, the universe knows this, so while conditions were almost identical to a couple days ago – and the weather had been stable – the BWOs didn’t show, and neither did any rising trout.

Sometimes, the Universe sucks.

Still, the low-on-the-horizon light was gorgeous, and anyone who can’t embrace the reality of fly fishing in winter – wearing only two thin layers – needs more help than this site can provide (“lie down on the couch, and tell me about your fishing childhood…”).

Without risers, Wayne and I plugged away for a while, then headed downriver a bit, where I fired up the Pentax Optio digital and Wayne went nymphing.

A half hour netted him two fish – the biggest a chunky 14″ Upper Sac Rainbow, complete with color.

See? The rainbow trout just went pure color in the late afternoon light.

I popped a few more frames, tied on a woolly bugger, and we headed back upriver, where I quickly caught a wide-shouldered 15″ rainbow, and Wayne proceeded to get three more from an upriver run – two of which were gloriously colored in the golden afternoon sun (it was a daylong “Magic Hour” out there).

A rare Bob Grace sighting (at least when he’s not behind the counter at the Ted Fay Fly Shop).

It was bracing to catch trout in that final flurry, but the old say about “it was just great to get out on the river” was true. I won’t pretend it’s been a hard winter (so far), but cold is cold, and the warm sun not only contributed Vitamin D by the truckload, it just plain felt good on bodies used to being swaddled in layers of fleece.

The river doesn’t wash away all our sins, but water’s a solvent after all, and any time spent in moving water lightens the load in some small way.

The Pesky Details

The day was a study in contrasts; Wayne strung up one of the best fly rods of all time – the Sage 389LL. And while I wanted to believe I’d hit a BWO hatch (I had a glass 5wt in the truck if I did), I pulled my Orvis 9′ 6wt Zero Gravity streamer rod out of the tube, and after fruitlessly casting a dry for an hour, ended up tying on a streamer anyway (the Underground’s streamer fly rod mantra: Longer, Stronger, Warrantied).

My ongoing review of Patagonia’s Insulator soft shell remains stalled; it wasn’t cold enough to wear the thing, much less the Micro-Puff insulated jacket still hanging in the Trout Underground/Man Cave.

The Patagonia “Sticky Rubber” wading shoes did get another workout, and while the jury’s not wholly in, I remain pleasantly surprised by the results. I would have told you an un-studded rubber sole wouldn’t function on the Upper Sacramento, but so far, the results are pretty good.

They don’t grip as well as studded felts, but my feeling is they’re better than the Weinbrenner studded rubber soles – and absolute dynamite on dry rocks, where studded felt can get downright dangerous.

So far, so good – Patagonia’s “Sticky Rubber” wading boots are light, comfy, protective and grippy. More to come.

Lightweight yet supportive, I am willing to say the Patagonia Riverwalkers would make an excellent hike-to-fly-fish-a-small-stream boots, but more testing is needed on the big river.

Plus, with Simms, Patagonia and Cloudveil all planning to release new Vibram rubber sticky soles soon (with very different sole patterns), the rubber-soled wading boot will evolve yet again.

With a New Zealand ban on felt-soled boots finally passing – and invasive species appearing on most fly fishermen’s environmental radars – the switch away from felt soles was probably picking up steam anyway, and this TU request can only stoke the boilers:

Many waders, wading boots and shoes used by anglers have felt-soled bottoms that are used to provide traction while walking in water. Felt is a material that transmits aquatic nuisance species such as New Zealand mud snails, the invasive algae called didymo and the parasite that causes whirling disease, a disease fatal to trout. Felt soles can very easily become impregnated with mud and other organic matter, and become difficult or impossible to clean and disinfect.

â€œWhile the elimination of felt soles on waders and boots will not entirely prevent the spread of ANS, this action will help reduce the risk and help protect our precious aquatic resources,â€ said David Kumlien, executive director of the Whirling Disease Foundation. This action will also help make the public more aware of the threat of ANS and hopefully will motivate them to change their behavior and practices related to other aquatic recreational activities that may also contribute to the spread ANS.â€

I’ve posted a few of my studded-rubber soled wading boot adventures; my experience has been largely positive, and at this point, I wouldn’t go back to felt for financial reasons alone (it doesn’t hold up to the sharp rocks lining the railroad tracks).

Simms has promised a response at the FFR show (I smell an orchestrated move, Undergrounders), and I promise to report what I know – when I know it.